Kage
by bleached.to.an.inch.of.my.life
Summary: The Special Human World Task Force, a team of humans with special souls. Established by themselves without any regard what so ever towards Soul Society! Follow the squad as they fight the war with Aizen. Crappy summary....blegh. Read and REview!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer.+ I don't own Bleach…Bleach owns me.

This is just based on some of my ideas and stuff…it's sorta set during the war with Aizen.

Imagination coupled with boredom can make for some ridiculous stuff…

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Prologue: The Kage

Fujiwara Touya heaved a deep breath, feeling his lungs expanding as the sweet, sweet air filled his lungs. It could be his last, he thought.

His arm throbbed with a dull pain from the horrendous wound that stretched from his shoulder down to his wrist. Courtesy of the ugly looking arrancar that was standing in front of him. He didn't know how much longer he would be able to keep hold of his zanpakutou, he couldn't even feel his fingers anymore. The wound was clearly tainted with a paralyzing poison.

Risking his neck, he quickly glanced back at his men. They were all engaged in battles of their own against full arrancars or half-formed ones. Some were fighting in twos and threes while others, like him, faced the enemy alone. They were clearly on the verge of defeat.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

It had started as a routine mission. He was put in charge of a squad of fourteen shinigami. Their task was to investigate an abnormal spirit activity that had occurred in the living world. It was far from the 'harvesting grounds' as the areas known for regular spirit activity occurrences were called, so no one thought much about it. It could just be some random human affected by the war raging in Karakura-cho. But to be on the safe side, his squad was sent to investigate.

They had barely gotten there when they were ambushed by a group of arrancars. There were only four of them. But they were decimating his men.

Fujiwara gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his zanpakutou. They were his responsibility, his men…_his friends._

He would get them through this. They would make it back home alive.

"So hows about it arrancar? Lets have another go," he grinned. "I promise I'll kill you this time."

"Inssssolent ssshinigami!!" screeched the arrancar, a forked tongue slipping out between its sharp pointed teeth. It had a deep stab wound just a few millimeters from its heart. Courtesy of one Fujiwara Touya.

"I ssshall kill you!!!" it screeched and raised its clawed hand. The claws were three inches long and were made up of strong reiatsu enforced bones. The tips were hollow, like a snakes fangs, to allow the flow of deadly poison. A poison that Fujiwara was experiencing first hand.

"Not if I kill you first! I am Fujiwara Touya, fifth seat of the Ninth Squad of the Gotei 13, and I will kill you!"

Fujiwara shunpoed and got in to close range, gritting his teeth until he could taste blood on his tongue, he raised his zanpakutou and prepared to administer the killing blow when suddenly a vicious pain erupted from the back of his neck.

The arrancar had managed to get its tail around the shinigami and had used it to whip him with all the force it could muster.

Fujiwara felt the pain explode but he wasn't deterred by it. His legs fell underneath him but he quickly thrust his zanpakutou to the ground, using it for support.

Blurrily, he could see the arrancar's face crack into a manic grin as it raised its clawed hand above its head in preparation for a blow. A blow that he knew would undoubtedly split his skull and splatter his brains right across the battle ground.

_No_, his mind screamed. He would not die here. He had the safety of his men to take care of.

In a split second, he tensed his arm muscles and pulled his zanpakutou from the ground. Pointing it upwards, he aimed roughly at the arrancar's heart and thrust with all his might…when there was a flash of the brightest blue.

His zanpakutou thrust into empty air as the enemy was disintegrated. Losing his balance, he fell to the ground with a thump, his wind knocked out of him. Groaning, he pushed himself up and saw an orange haired teenager walking towards him, a cleaver shaped zanpakutou held ready in his hand. Fujiwara felt his breath catch in his throat as he realized who it was.

"Sorry I'm late. We just received the distress signal. Don't worry, I'll get you through this," he said and without further ado, he disappeared from Fujiwara's sight.

His disappearance was promptly punctuated by a blood-curdling cry of pain from the nearest arrancar.

Kurosaki Ichigo, shinigami substitute and commander of the Special Human World Task Force or, as they call themselves, the Kage, _the Shadow, _was here.

Fujiwara Touya, fifth seat of the Ninth Squad of the Gotei 13 took a deep, deep breath knowing that it wasn't his last after all at least for the day. He knew that his squad would live to see another day. He knew that his friends were going to be alright.

Slowly, his eyes closed as the pain and exhaustion caught up with him. They would be alright.

Kurosaki Ichigo was here.

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So, how about that for a prologue, eh?

Hope you take the time to review. As fellow authors…you must know how important this is to me so…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer + Bleach owns me…I own a plushy.

This is chapter 2 born from a doubtable state of mind…

Forgive the coffee…it was my fault for drinking too much.

To clarify, this is set after the arrancar arc. So, it's sorta a futurefic (I'm not sure what the term actually is)….

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Chapter 1: The Kage

The Special Human World Task Force was an elite group of people with special souls and special abilities established by themselves without any regard what so ever towards Soul Society.

Needless to say, Soul Society was not impressed. Their lack of enthusiasm was made apparent almost instantly with the sudden appearance of Captains Kuchiki Byakuya and Ukitake Jyuushiro.

Ukitake-taichou proceeded to explain to the squad leader and co-master mind of the establishment of the Special Human World Task Force, one Kurosaki Ichigo that the establishment of said squad, undermines Soul Society's authority over the living world and the souls residing in it. Kuchiki Byakuya did not say anything but the cold stare directed straight at Ichigo's head screamed disapproval in volumes. To avoid facing any disciplinary actions, the Special Human World Task Force was asked to disband immediately.

Kurosaki Ichigo, Commander and co-mastermind in the establishment of the Special Human World Task Force, scratched his head dismissively. Soul Society can take its disciplinary actions and stuff it up their collective asses for all he cared.

Ishida Uryuu, honorary member of the Special Human World Task Force who had no part what so ever in the establishment and had, in fact, been forced to join actually, pushed his glasses up his nose and said in a calm voice that as cool as that all sounded and all that, it probably wasn't the smartest thing to say to the shinigami representatives who are captains no less.

No doubt, Kuchiki Byakuya's facial expression had dropped several degrees and he was half out his seat and reaching for his zanpakutou, preparing to dispose of this uncouth human boy who had dared challenge Soul Society's integrity. And let his sister nearly die in that trip to Hueco Mundo. But mostly the Soul Society integrity thingy.

Kurosaki Ichigo grinned in expectation for a fight and reached for his own zanpakutou.

CLUNK.

A hard bonk to the head with a book of both shinigami by Ukitake Jyuushiro instantly restored order. Before either of them could retaliate, he gestured at Inoue Orihime who had stood up, hands clasped at her chest, blushing furiously but with eyes that shone with determination.

"The lady would like to speak," he said.

"Thank you Ukitake-taichou. I know this isn't really my place to speak, but I want to speak any who," began Orihime, her voice quavering but gaining strength as she continued.

"Now, as we all know, you shinigami are, no offence, already dead. We, on the other hand are very much alive, or maybe we aren't…like we already are dead but we didn't realize it and this is all just a dream and-"

"Ummm….Orihime-chan?"

"-oh. Ehehehe. Sorry, back to the point, my friends here and I are pretty much alive. A little weird around the edges, okay, very weird around the edges, like how Sado-kun's arms can turn into a gigantic shield and a demonic attacking arm and Ishida-kun can make humongous bows appear and Kurosaki-kun's soul can pop out like he's a Pez dispenser and I have my Shun-shun Rikka and-"

"Orihime-chan… The point being?"

"Oh yeah, right, the point being that we are alive. We are a part of this world. And as part of this world, we would like to protect as we know we can. We're not undermining anyone's authority. We don't mean anything like that. We just want to protect what's important to us."

After Inoue's conclusion, Kuchiki Byakuya made to stand up and regally made his way towards her and slowly raised his hand, Ichigo's hand flew to his zanpakutou and Ishida's bow began to take form as everyone tensed, and patted her head gently.

"I understand," he said quietly. "The Special Human World Task Force may continue to take action as seen fit by them. I shall vouch for you."

Needless to say, everyone was shocked. Not that they weren't happy, they were just shocked. I mean, this is Kuchiki Byakuya we're talking about.

Thus the Special Human World Task Force was allowed to continue. They were not directly under the control of Soul Society, a fact that worried the most skeptical of captains (read Kurotsuchi Mayuri). Thus, a shinigami representative had been sent to the Headquarters of the Special Human World Task Force, one Kuchiki Rukia.

Kuchiki Rukia stated that she was chosen as the Shinigami Representative and not a seated officer like usual because she was an expert master of the Kidou arts. Her abilities in the battle field and her agility in fights would prove invaluable to them. She was a veteran combatant. She would not just be a shinigami representative; she would be a fighter among them. Besides, being the adopted member of the Kuchiki house, she knew a thing or two about bureaucratic bullshit.

Everyone else knew it was only because she was the only one that could control Ichigo. Though no one ever said to her face. They valued their lives more.

A month after the official establishment of the Special Human World Task Force, their reputation had preceded them. Invaluable to Soul Society, a constant thorn in Aizen's side. The savior of countless souls that probably knew nothing.

And that was why, the mighty commander of the Special Human World Task Force was snoring contentedly, limbs strewn all over the couch where he had dropped on and promptly fallen asleep in after returning from his most recent mission. It was exhausting!

"Wake up you jerk! We got some more work to do!" yelled Rukia, slamming folders full of paperwork that needed immediate attention.

Ichigo jumped a clean couple of inched above the couch. He half-opened one of his eyes and groaned at the sight of the packed folders.

"These need immediate attention," Rukia snarled, tapping the folders with a finger.

"But that's Inoue's job. She's supposed to deal with the paperwork," he groaned.

"It would have been Inoue's job if you hadn't dropped that man."

"It wasn't my fault! I didn't do it on purpose. He was flailing like a mad rat and I lost my grip. If it was anyone's fault, it's his."

"He was having a seizure you dumb ass! Geez and to think you've lived in a clinic most of your life. And besides, the man you dropped, that was Fujiwara Touya. The fifth seat of the ninth squad! I just received a jigoku butterfly from Hisagi Shuuhei. He wants a report immediately."

"You lost Ishida-kun too, Kurosaki-kun," interrupted a new voice.

"Inoue, how are the shinigami doing?"

"They're alright. But I might have to keep the squad leader behind. He was poisoned by the arrancar and I want to keep him back to make sure that there are no more traces of the stuff in his blood. The fall didn't help him much," replied Orihime as she sat in the armchair next to Rukia.

"What is this? Blame the commander day? I didn't drop the man on purpose and I sure as hell did not lose Ishida. He just up and disappeared," yelled Ichigo.

"And a fine commander that makes you Kurosaki."

"Ishida-kun! You're back! Are you alright?" squealed Orihime, clapping her hands together.

"There you are. Where did you go?" yelled Ichigo.

"I went to investigate the site of abnormal spirit occurrences. When I saw that there were only four weak arrancar and demi-arrancar, I thought you would be more than capable at disposing of them. So, rather than wasting any time, I went to investigate. I told you that I was going," frowned Ishida, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose in a habitual gesture.

"Heh, must've not heard you then," said Ichigo, scratching the back of his head in a non committal way.

"Enough of that," interrupted Rukia, "what about this abnormal spirit activity? Is Aizen picking a new harvesting ground?"

"Fortunately no. Apparently, there was a group of arrancar there who were deserters. They've been hiding in that area for ages but because it was a relatively far away place from all the action, nobody has detected them until recently. I'm guessing that they got careless and didn't mask their reiatsu as well as they should have. They must've panicked at the sight of the approaching team of shinigami for them to attack."

"Hmm, so I guess Keigo was right after all," muttered Ichigo.

"Undoubtedly so," agreed Ishida.

Asano Keigo, honorary member of the Special Human World Task Force and one of the co-master minds in the establishment of the squad, was an invaluable person to the squad. His position did not involve any fighting but that didn't make his job any less important. Asano Keigo was the Special Human World Task Force's very own informer and self proclaimed, master of the unknown. Though no one in the headquarters had ever seen him do any information gathering. It was like he just knew. Keigo was so good at information gathering that the Special Human World Task Force usually knew stuff that Soul Society only found out weeks later.

When he was asked by his team mates, how the hell does ho do it? Keigo would touch the side of his nose with his forefinger, wink and say; "You just have to know who to listen to and what to listen for," in his most mysterious voice before bursting into loud laughter; cue for Ichigo to slam his head in to the nearest wall.

"Come on, let's go to the lounge," said Ichigo, getting up from the couch.

"But what about the paper work?"

"Let me do that Rukia-chan. It is my job after all," said Inoue.

"Thanks a bunch Inoue-san," saluted Ichigo. Paperwork, the bane of his rank.

"How does he do it anyway?" asked Rukia, as they made their way to the lounge that doubled as their meeting room and tripled as their strategy department.

So? The headquarters was small.

"I don't know. I mean, I've never seen him do anything except stuff his face, sleep and talk about girls when he's here. And he's here nearly all the time!" said Ichigo in confusion.

As they drew nearer to the lounge/ meeting room/ strategy department, they could hear a loud ruckus inside. When they slid the door open, they were greeted with the sight of Keigo with two straws jutting out of his lower lip, pretending to be a walrus that he had seen at the zoo the other day.

Yup, they don't know how he did it.

"Oh, Ichigo! You're baa----urk!!!"

Ichigo had slammed Keigo into the wall.

"Yo Ichigo, how'd it go?" asked Mizuiro from his position at the meeting table on top of which was a large map of Karakura-cho and it's surrounding areas that he was poring over. The map was full of variously colored stickers and small flags sticking all over it.

"Pretty well. No thanks to Ishida," grinned Ichigo as he entered the room.

"I told you I was doing a recon on the abnormality!" snapped Ishida, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Relax, I'm just joking."

"HAHA!" cried Keigo, finally extricating himself from the wall. "I told you it was just some low class arrancars! Come on, say it! Oh, the great Asano Keigo, you are correct yet again! Please shower us with your little gold nuggets of information! Oh Lord of The Unknown! **HAHAHA**!"

Everyone ignored him.

"Fine! Be that way!" he sniffed and went to a corner to sulk, straws still jutting out of his lower lip.

Everyone sweat dropped.

"So, Mizuiro, anything new on the front?" asked Ichigo, peering over Mizuiro's shoulder to look at the map on the table.

"Nothing new to report, Commander. As you can see, Aizen has been unusually quiet. He hasn't launched an attack for at least a couple of weeks already," explained Mizuiro.

"Hmm, that's weird. Keigo, we should probably look more into this."

"So you **DO** appreciate me-umph!!!!"

Ichigo had just thrown a water bottle that struck Keigo dead on the forehead.

"Bull's…eye," mumbled Keigo as he dropped into a heap on the floor, having taken one to many today.

"About our personnel, Tatsuki's still with Abarai Fuku-taichou's squad down in the south front. She says she'll be back operating at headquarters as soon as she can but she's swamped right now."

Ichigo grunted. Swamped, yeah right.

"What about Chad?"

"His report came in just after you left. He's fine but he can't seem to find any traces of the strange reiatsu that shot up over there this morning."

"Anything else?"

"Kuwabara-kun, Michiko-chan and Kuro-kun had an encounter with a hollow earlier this evening. They're alright except for a couple of minor injuries. According to their report, Michiko-chan has discovered an amazing ability. Apparently, she can make guns out of the surrounding reishi and use her own reiatsu as bullets."

"That's great. Bring her in tomorrow to get reiatsu controlling lessons. I'm pretty worried about this strange reiatsu though. Can we send anyone out to give Chad a hand? Someone with fine reiatsu sensing abilities."

"That would be Kuro-kun. I'll call him," replied Mizuiro as he reached for his cell and began punching in Kuro Harada's number.

Kojima Mizuiro, co-mastermind in the establishment of the Special Human World Task Force, was among the people invaluable to the squad.

He was a master strategist. No one would have thought so when looking at his innocently cute face but the squad knew better. His talent for forming fool proof strategies was discovered during their first arrancar encounter as a squad.

Ichigo's strategy was to rush straight into the fray and slash 'em and bash 'em and thrash 'em and….

Mizuiro had another idea. Using a stick, he carefully drew up a plan of strategy that wasn't only simple enough for even Keigo to understand, but was also effective.

After the arrancars had been disposed of, Mizuiro was unanimously voted to become the Head of the (newly formed) Strategy Department.

When asked how the hell had he gotten that good at formulating strategies, Mizuiro asked, did they really think he got all those beautiful, older girlfriends by luck?

Keigo was seen trailing after Mizuiro on his knees, begging for lessons for weeks after that.

Ichigo nodded, satisfied as he headed for the fridge to get another bottle of water, having used his last one on Keigo for target practice. As he twisted the bottle cap open, his eyes flicked to the faces of his team mates.

A few months ago, he had thought to not let his friends know about the war. He thought he should protect by not letting them in. By keeping them far away. His friends had done the exact opposite. They had come closer, beaten the crap out of him in an attempt to force some sense into him and formed the Squad.

Now, Mizuiro and Keigo were based at headquarters. Tatsuki was in the fields, preferring to fight rather than face paperwork and of course, Rukia (though she wasn't technically a member of the squad), Ishida, Sado and Inoue, fighting to protect what was important to them all. In fact they were even recruiting new people whose souls had been affected by the raging war and had wanted to fight as well. They were all in this together. They were all his nakama.

Not for the first time, Ichigo swore that he would protect them with his life.

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Right. That's the continuation. As you can see, it's sorta to lay the bases for the fic. Sorry if it's kinda slow. I'm still new at this.

I would appreciate reviews greatly. You guys don't know how happy that makes me.

Stay tuned for the next chapter!!!!

bleached.to.an.inch.of.my.life


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